Maine Comic Arts Festival

This year's Maine Comic Arts Festival brought another wave of sun and shiny artists together.

 The location really can't be beat, sitting right over the water in Portland, Maine. I found many familiar faces from the MECA orbit. Front and center was Ben Bishop, who's had recent success with his graphic novel for DownEast, " Lost Trail."

We met years ago in an Illustration 2 classroom at MECA. Not far away I encountered colleague
Michael Connor of Coelacanthus fame, who co-taught Illo 2 with me this past semester. Sitting next to him was former student, Jessica Shea.

Right next to her was MECA alum Kori Handwerker, who publishes a free web comic, Prince of Cats.

Many other talents showed their wares with big smiles. Found kinship with this artist over deer.

Who could resist these adorable crocheted jellies?

They were total magnets for the fab art of Renee Kurilla.

Indeed, the water theme was fitting for the location. Here's Dave Roman and Kazu Kibuishi working their pens.

Another familiar face from SCBWI: Casey G! Could be the last time I see her for awhile, as she departs the east coast for the west. Fare thee well, Casey, you'll be missed.

The MECAF crowd is always friendly and chatty, a good place to talk shop, ogle wares, collect cards and buttons, and bring home plenty of swag with a capital S.

Big bravo to Casablanca Comics for pulling another memorable event together.

epic tale of history comix camp

Thwack! I still have sea shanties stuck in my head.....what's a comix camper to do?

The week of history about piracy and privateering in Casco Bay combined with comic creation turned out to be too darn fun.

Thanks to Casablanca Comics and the Fifth Maine Museum for help in
launching the pilot program!

Campers got off to a fierce start, working on a 4 panel comic about their journey to camp.

This one by Ruby has energy and character.

This is Annika's, also direct and graphic.

  I like the bad hair moment
that leaps to the hot air balloon.

Nicholas gives a lot of sound to his panels:

Love the final panel, where he's on the
ferry from Portland....HOOONK.

But it wasn't all drawing. My intrepid matey Patricia Erikson told fantastic tales of actual events
happening right out in the bay, like about the ghost ship, the Dash, that disappeared without a trace
in 1815.

Campers also learned about tying knots, like any good sailor, such as the figure 8 knot, the
clove hitch, and the bowline.

Every pirate helped cook cod chowder. Campers spent time in the galley, flushing the cod from Browne Trading Company and chopping potatoes.

More drawing time down at Hadlock Cove....where the girls started plotting their story lines.

Day 2: a tour of the schooner, the Wendameen!

Our intrepid tour guide Holly showed us the ropes.

We had a little time to sketch on board. This is Vincent's drawing, full of quick details..

Next we headed up to the top of the Casco Bay Garage for a change of view and perspective studies.

Daisy got the panorama.

Frederick drew the huge cruise ship in port.

We went below the pier for another point of view.

Back to the Fifth Maine, with time for drawing characters.

Day 3: Fort Gorges! Captain Mark Green buzzed the campers out to the fort in no time at all.

Lucky campers got to have a seat in the bow.
I've lived on Peaks Island for 18 years, ferrying past the Fort countless times. It was a thrill
to set foot on that old stone.

We heard more stories about ships seized right at the base of Munjoy Hill.
I handed out little viewfinders to aid in finding compositions, but the fort's arches
and windows provided excellent natural frames.

It was a challenge to capture all the repeating architecture. Jerzy managed to
simplify it beautifully.

There were several dark places that we could not go.
We had to leave sooner than we wanted to: it was a tide thing.

Thanks to Mark Green!
That much water time meant only one thing: swimming!
Girl pirates like cold water.

But there was still more work: cranking the ice cream. Arrrgghh! Rum Raisin!

 Day 4 got serious about paneling. Deadline time. There was a lot of
pencil sharpening, shanty songs on the boombox, and lots of erasing.

Day 5- time to assemble and sew the final comic books!!!

This is not as easy as it looks.

But there were plenty of comic books to read when you were all done
with illustrating your cover.

Each camper got 4 pages of panels to tell a story, and there's a fantastic variety.

Grace makes use of a floating title and a spooky shadow to open up her story.

Owen creates a talking helicopter scavenging the skies.

 Frederick has great humor.

Daisy used a cliff-hanger device.....

And Caleb threw in some WW2 elements, perhaps noted in the Fifth Maine's second floor exhibit.

This sparked a trip to Battery Steele, now part of the Peaks Island Land Preserve.

The walk provided some great nature sightings.

The last of the afternoon was spent at Picnic Point, playing pirate games, making forts, and
getting hungry for home-made ice cream.

Folks came along to share the refreshments and see the comic results. A few hardy campers sang
the comic shanty, which still sticks in my head, and we were done.

Huzzah to all pirates who can draw as quick as they laugh! Thanks for a sunny, silly week of art and history.

comic connections

I am bleary but satiated by the weekend's big event: the Maine Comics Art Festival!
First, a big bow to Casablanca Comics, for getting this plush ball rolling, and making Portland a destination for comic creators.



I pass this sign on my way to the Portland Public Library, scene of a full-day of speakers on Saturday, as well as an exhibit of comic art in the new Lewis Gallery.



I caught the tail end of Jay Piscopo's presentation on drawing comics from basic shapes. He makes it look easy!



Next up was John Shableski, who Kirsten Cappy introduced as the Buffalo Bill of the graphic novel frontier. John's a sales manager for Diamond Book Distributors, and knows his stuff on both the comic and content side of the coin. He gave a witty and informative presentation on the history of comics, from the caves of Lascaux to web comics, demonstrating the universal language of imagery. He had a pile of books for browsing, and excellent handouts for educators.

Here's the lovely Kirsten showing off her current fave book series.



Next up was the dynamic duo of David Roman and Raina Telgemeier, who talked about genres of comics, styles of art, interpretations, and influences.



Here Dave has drawn Garfield, a character he copied as a kid, learning to draw. Similar features can still be found in his current work.



They elaborated on the focus on features, showing tons of great images from all genres,
simple vs. detailed illustration techniques, inking and linework. For instance, Raina admitted that she'd been very attached to her set of Micron pens, using different sizes for thick and thin lines, until an art professor urged her to use a brush. Now, she uses one brush that can yield a broader line variety.

They emphasized "there is no wrong way to draw!" Amen!

Dave and Raina showed examples of comic mash-ups, such as blends of superhero styles with manga, for the X-Men Misfits. They discussed storytelling and layout, expression and acting, and ended with Raina drawing comic responses to words thrown out by the audience: exasperation, boredom, confusion, and greed.

Here Raina demonstrates emonata (spelling, anybody?):



After this, Robin Chapman from the Center for Cartoon Studies led the crowd in a panel and composition workshop.

I had to draw her lithe proportions and groovy glasses:



At this point, I had to run for the ferry. Houseguests back on the island, of course!
Missed the Steampunk discussion, and the readings by creators. Shucks.

But a brisk ride back to Peaks Island on the top deck, chatting with John Shableski, renewed my energies for the big day on Sunday. I headed back through foggy seas to join Patricia Erikson at a table for our History Comix Camp, recruiting middle schoolers for a weeklong day camp adventure in the art and history of Casco Bay piracy.

Tricia got into the part!



She walked the history talk while I sketched a few panels.



We did get to leave our posts and check out the amazing crowd of creators. So many, so little wallet, but I encountered some cool folks.

Here's Joel Zain Rivers, local impressario of graphic novels with a historical flair. He's also a cohort in the Maine Illustrators Collective, which will exhibit together soon at the Green Hand.



Here's the adorable Jen Vaughn, whose Mermaid Hostel was irresistible.



I was happy to find my soon-to-be colleague at Maine College of Art working his table in a dandy manner, Mr. Michael Connor of Coelacanthus fame.



Michael will be teaching a Graphic Novel class this fall in the illustration department. Currently his exquisite originals are on view in the Lewis Gallery exhibit mentioned above.

Back at the table with Trisha, we met many interesting kids, parents, and fellow educators like the enthusiastic media teacher all the way from Machias, Ryan Zlomek. The good energy among the crowd was so palpable. Kapow!

Again, it was time to catch a boat before I could really take it all in. Seeing the Gateway Terminal in the fog conjurs a vision of a slimy sea monster emerging from the mist....



My daughter and I compared our loot back home. She spent a little cash, but favored the free stickers and buttons, but was VERY proud of her caricature by Braden Lamb.



My stash was smaller, but just as loaded.



Sigh. What a way to spend the weekend! Thanks to Casablanca Comics and to all the talent that traveled to our town, and to the pack of local talent that makes Portland such a great place.

Back to the drawing board!